Wednesday, January 10, 2024
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(Are you bringing the Isotoner gloves to Kansas City this weekend?) – “No. (laughter) Probably no Isotoner gloves, but I’m going to see what we can wear for the game. You can’t prepare for a game like that with that kind of weather, so it’ll be new.”
(So are you testing gloves for on-field play?) – “No. I’ll just see what it feels like without gloves. I just think the whole thing is a mindset.”
(What do you remember about watching last year’s playoff game that you think will help you now playing in your first playoff game?) – “Well, I think outside of the playoff game, there were a lot of other games that I missed. A lot of the guys from last year’s team, there’s been a lot of guys that haven’t returned. There’s a lot of new guys on this team and I think it’s a different team. I think a lot of the guys, we all want to do it right. It just sucks when we’re not able to with the work that we put in. But it’s a new season, the way we look at it. New season, new opportunity, and we can still get to where we want to get to after this week. But for me, I mean, not much I can say from me missing last year to now except for me missing it. So that was it.”
(You’ve made huge strides in the last couple of years. One area Head Coach Mike McDaniel was talking about earlier is maybe the end of game stuff. I asked him about that and he said that you’re still kind of learning those situations and you get better every time. What have you learned this season from end of game situations that you can apply going forward?) – “Just continuing to take what the defense gives me. There’s a lot of things on film that we can continue to get better at that had presented itself and just never took those opportunities. We had a lot of time in those instances and then in some of them there were miscommunications. But they’re all learning opportunities, and now it’s win or go home. So you can’t have those mistakes going into games like this.”
(Does anything change in those late game scenarios, high urgency on both sides, you guys to score, defense to stop you?) – “I mean you just got to find a way, any which way you can help your team win, whether it’s a field goal or scoring.”
(Obviously there’s no way to prepare for those conditions, but when you go out there and the wind might be a factor, how important maybe is the pregame warmups? What might you have to adjust based off the wind and the conditions there?) – “I think it’s just a feel of how everything is, what the ball feels like, what throwing feels like, what holding the ball feels like, if there’s wind, if there’s not wind, you have to take all those things into consideration. But we’ll go there, we’ll test it out and we’ll see what we have to do as far as adjusting or not.”
(What is just the feel around the locker room? We didn’t get a chance to see you guys practice, but this is it. This is what you play for all season.) – “I think the guys are excited that we still have another opportunity and we’re not necessarily leaving the building with a bad taste in our mouth from the last game. It’s just another opportunity for us to hopefully do what we said we wanted to do all along.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel talked this morning a little bit about the Chiefs aggressiveness in their blitzing and how it makes the offense have to be on their stuff. What can you do to help the offense be on top of your stuff this weekend?) – “I think it’s playing on time, knowing where my hots are. If I can, outside of our motions, if we’re allowed time to change protection, then we can do that, but because of how on time we do play, that’s sort of how we have been beating teams with pressures.”
(For a long time we’ve talked about WR Tyreek Hill and his professionalism since he’s arrived here, how he shows it every day in practice and so forth. In the past week or so, he’s had to deal with an awful lot of stuff. What have you seen from him and his ability to compartmentalize what he’s had to deal with?) – “I think he’s such a very mentally tough individual that from what had happened throughout what he’s been going through with injuries and then also with the fire that happened at his house, he hadn’t mentioned it much to his teammates, but guys will go and show their support for him. He has a good perspective on life. He has a good perspective on, ‘it’s not about me.’ And how he copes with it is definitely different. You can tell he’s mentally strong with how he goes about doing his business. But that’s what I would say.”
(If WR Jaylen Waddle is able to come back this week, how much does that help you guys get you to what you want to do offensively?) – “Yeah, I think it helps us out a lot. And then it’ll uncover what defensively what they want to do. If they want to bracket both those guys, we’re going to have to find other guys that can win their one-on-one matchups. Or if they want to double Tyreek (Hill), we’ll find Jaylen or we’ll find someone else who is working their matchup. We’ll come out, we’ll see what they want to do and we’ll go from there.”
(Is there an experience that you’ve had throughout your career, maybe not just at this level but going back to college, that you kind of pull from to prepare for this high-stakes game? Or I guess what is your personal approach to it?) – “Yeah, I don’t think I could compare this to anything because it’s all new. Everything is all new. This is a different feeling than it was in the National Championship game. Different feeling than it was in the SEC Championship game. I think they all come from new feelings. But the way I cope with it is go about my business the way I’ve been going about my business, take care of my job and trust my teammates will do the same with theirs.”
(What areas of growth – Head Coach Mike McDaniel talked about how this has been a continued season of growth for you – what areas of growth do you think you’ve had the most this year?) – “I don’t think I’ve had the opportunity to really sit down and look back at areas of growth for myself because of the day-to-day process of ok, whatever happened last week, you have to let that go. This is the gameplan for this week. You have these many cans, you have to know this, that, or the other. You don’t necessarily have that time to sit back and reflect necessarily. So, I would say I don’t have an answer right now for you. But after the season, we’ll definitely look back at things we’ve improved on and things we can continue to get better at.”
(Is it a point of pride that you led the league in passing this year?) – “Not necessarily. Individual accolades are super cool. They’re awesome. But if we could’ve won all our games, I would’ve traded that for that. if I would’ve thrown for 200 yards the entire season and we would’ve been 17-0, I think anybody would’ve done the same. Yeah, it’s cool, but that doesn’t mean you won or you accomplished what you wanted to accomplish as a team.”
(I imagine the same answer for your first Pro Bowl? We didn’t ask you last week.) – “Well, first Pro Bowl, that’s different because it’s recognition across the league from coaches, players and fans. I’m very grateful for that honor. It’s not something that I take lightly. But when it’s about me, it does get a little weird. But I am very grateful for that.”
(What’s the coldest temperature you’ve ever even been in?) – “I think maybe 20 (degrees)? Or like a little lower than 20? Nothing lower than I would say, 15. So probably in between there.”
(When was that?) – “It was in Seattle. We played an all-star game in high school and it was raining. It was bad. It was at night, too, and it was very windy. Terrible. No heaters on the sideline. (laughter) High school game. Terrible. All you have is like everybody under one blanket and the blanket is wet. (laughter)”
(When you were coming from Hawaii and going to Alabama, what was that reaction to cold weather?) – “Well, at first I thought it was really cool because that was my first time I got to see snow and now everybody’s like, ‘wait, it snows in Alabama?’ (laughter) Yeah, it’s crazy. It didn’t snow the two years after, but it snowed and the snow stuck. That was my first time seeing snow. It was super cool. But yeah, like the things that I can remember while it was cold is it was a little different gripping the ball. Your hands aren’t as moist when you’re feeling the ball so you either have a hand warmer or something to keep it not dry, if that makes sense. But yeah, that’s what I can remember.”
(Could you educate me – I got pushback because I referred to you as Hawaiian on social media. You’re Hawaiian? You’re from Hawaii?) – “I’m from Hawaii. I’m not Hawaiian.”
(Explain the difference.) – “So Polynesian, it entails Hawaiians, Samoans, Tongans, Fijians, you can throw people from the Cook Islands in there. Like anyone within the Polynesian Triangle, if you look it up, they’re Polynesian. I would say we are similar but different. I say that because there are words that sound very similar in each culture, but they’re said differently. And then obviously outside of that, the cultures are all different. That’s what I would say with Polynesian people, but I’m Samoan. I just grew up in Hawaii. That’s it. But there’s a lot of people that are Samoan, there’s a lot of people that are Tongan that live in Hawaii, that are in Hawaii, but are not Hawaiian. But yeah, that’s not to say that we don’t like Hawaiians or we don’t like whatever; that’s what that is.”
(So you were raised in Hawaii but you are not Hawaiian?) – “Correct.”
(What is the biggest challenge in facing this very good Chiefs defense?) – “The different looks that they present to us and then obviously you have Chris Jones. I mean, that dude is different. A lot of respect for his game and what he can do in disrupting a game plan and disrupting a game. So we’ll have to know where he’s at during the game and really just trust our keys. They give us different looks. They present one-high deals, then go to two-high. They present two-high deals, then have fire zones, so we’ll just have to be ready and then with their (Cover) 0s that they have, too. So we’ve just got to be ready with that and yeah, here we go.”
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Offensive Coordinator Frank Smith
(Fans want to know, what do you do on gameday if Head Coach Mike McDaniel is calling plays?) – “Well, when the hot dogs are out, and the chips are done… (laughter). It’s more of, we’re actively involved in communication throughout the game. What we’re seeing, what the defense is doing, talking about play suggestions, what we’re looking at as far as the attack, how we need to address stuff like that. So it’s just active communication with him and then really the whole staff as to what’s occurring and what we need to do at that moment.”
(Do you suggest plays?) – “Yeah, we talk about it. I mean, as far as – the great thing is when you work with someone for so long, normally it’s like, ‘hey what do you think?’ Yep, I was kind of already there. At halftime it’s hilarious. I mean, literally as we’re game planning for this game, he (McDaniel) pulled up a couple plays and then he’s like, what about that. I’m like, this is eerie. Because you’re just around someone so much, you kind of see things in a certain light and it makes it real easy to get connected to what you think the approach and the attack is. A lot of the times where it’s ‘hey, I’m seeing this,’ and he’s like ‘yep, just circled it.’ It’s a very fluid conversation with him and I. That’s why it makes coming to work so much fun.”
(The Panthers announced that they had requested to interview you for their head-coaching vacancy. Just wanted to ask do you plan on interviewing for that and if so, how are you balancing that with the playoff game this weekend?) – “That stuff’s for the future. It doesn’t happen for the next week or something. As you guys know, and we talked about it before, it’s extremely humbling. I mean, you go out in your career and you set forward so many things that you want to have as your personal goals. To be at the cusp of all that, I’m truly thankful for all the people who helped me get here. Those things in the future will obviously transpire when they do. But today is about today and we have a lot of work to do to get ready for Saturday night. The one thing that I never take for granted is where I’m at today and what is necessary. Those things in the future will be when they come. I have the greatest job that I could ever ask for and I work for an organization with people that I’ve always wanted to work with. We’re just worried today about being the best we can be and getting ready for Saturday.”
(Would they like you to interview next week?) – “I don’t know. I don’t really concern myself with that just because of the rules and all that. I just know that’s the future. I know that today in about an hour and a half, I know exactly what I’m going to be doing. The future will handle itself when it does. I’m not really concerned about it right now. I’m concerned with helping these guys get ourselves ready to go to Kansas City.”
(Things are so fluid and changing it seems like by the minute almost. Have any other teams contacted you or put out feelers?) – “I don’t know. I can’t talk to anyone. I try to stay in my little world and fight crime in the darkness of trying to solve problems for the Dolphins. All that stuff, I’m fortunate I have people to help me in my life, and I just try and stay focused on today and make sure that we’re putting ourselves in the best position to have a successful game on Saturday.”
(As a candidate, you don’t wake up on Tuesday and go to an interview Wednesday. This is prep you’ve probably done for years of your career to get to this point, putting together action plans, binders, things like that. Is that correct?) – “Maybe some people do. I’m more of like, I didn’t really look at, ‘okay, some day I want this.’ I never looked at my career as at the end, I want this result, because then what if you don’t? How do you look back on your career as to what it meant? I’ve always focused on each day, it’s helping the people around you, serving others and adding value to their day, adding value to their lives. And you’re going, why is that? For me, football taught me who I am. It helped me find my career. It helped me find a lot of value in my life in college. It helped me give me my best friends. So much. I’ve found when you love something, you sacrifice and you invest. The more you give to football, to me, it’s always given back. So I never really looked at, ‘hey, I want all these things and I’m planning for all that.’ I always looked at it like, ‘alright, what’s my job today and how do I maximize it, and how do I become the best at what I need to do today?’ Then as you go along, you get reps. I’ve been surrounded by some great people I’ve been able to work with. I mean, Super Bowl-winning head coaches and great players. As many reps that you need to get ready for all the stuff in the future, you can get by listening and absorbing. I never really worried about what the end result was going to be. I just worried about making sure that I could add value today and be the best service I could to whoever I needed to do it with.”
(Since your focus is on this week, what impresses you about Chiefs Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s defense?) – “Basically, their ability to really communicate well. You can see that they’re very well connected. They like to dictate the terms, make sure that they’re all, from the back end to the front end, they’re playing sound defense. I worked with him in New Orleans in 2012, so he’s a very meticulous guy. He’s going to be on all the details. He’ll be on all the things that we do as an offense. So it’ll be a big challenge because you have a guy like Steve and his staff that do a great job with Andy (Reid) and just the whole program, and going into Arrowhead is not an easy endeavor. It’s going to be on us to be on all of the things we need to be ready for and our communication and the environment as we go into Saturday night.”
(I’m doing something on the big play. What does the big play do for this offense? We’ve seen many big plays from this offense. And what do your big plays do the opposing defense?) – “I mean, if you just into the nitty gritty of football, you say, okay, 100 yards equals seven points. So your ability to manufacture yards is you’re ability to score. The more yards you can accumulate, the more likely you are to get points which is how you win the game. An explosive play allows for you to cut down how many opportunities you need to go there. You’re increasing your likelihood to get down to the other side, to the end zone. But then, what does it allow for the offense to do? That’s like nitty gritty. My first year in the NFL, I had Howard Mudd explaining that to me and just the essence of manufacturing yards and moving the ball down the field and what it means to points. At the time I was like, okay? Now the older I’ve gotten, the more it makes sense from the old (Bill) Parcells stuff about the hidden yardage and how it all relates to scoring. But for our offense, it’s about how we’re trying to attack the defense as far as attacking them from sideline to sideline and then goal line to goal line. Our ability to attack down the field, it just falls into kind of our identity and what we try to do in our strive and our approach to each game. Defenses then have an answer to that. Then what is our response to it and trying to make sure that we can accurately keep trying to challenge down the field. It’s a complementary aspect. There’s different ways to get explosive plays down the field or gain yards, whether it’s explosive runs, explosive passes, screens. There are many different ways you can try and manufacture it. Through play-action passes, you’re giving a conflict of the run element to collapse and then now to stretch, to find the holes in between the zones. So that’s just something that is kind of part of our offense and allows for you to accumulate more yards in a shorter period of time.”
(Does the deflating affect on the defense, especially QB Tua Tagovailoa, WR Tyreek Hill, WR Jaylen Waddle, does the defense think, how do you defend this? Do you see that?) – “Sometimes you can see that their initial thoughts maybe weren’t materializing the way they thought, or they started off trying to defend it, and then the running game gets going where they have to come down to take it away. It works complementary. The NFL is full of a lot of experienced defensive coordinators who have multiple ways of trying to take elements of your offense away. Then it’s on us to make sure that for one area that they are trying to work on, ok how do we have the complementary piece to attack their scheme offensively. It’s an area that we enjoy working at, and it’s built for the guys we have here. But at the same time, it’s about gaining yards, getting the ball down the field, either in chunks, or efficient movement. It’s like whatever way we need to do it to effectively play at our best is what we’re striving for.”
(I wanted to ask your philosophy on the practice squad, and kind of stashing veteran guys on there. How much more helpful is it to be able to bring in an experienced player in a tight spot versus having to plug in a 23-year-old who doesn’t have as many reps?) – “I think it’s kind of more of their perspective. If you got a more experienced guy, they’ve had more years in the league and they’ve probably been in situations where they understand what they are going to be thrust into. Guys who are younger in their career are still growing and developing, and maybe through the development, they can continue to have a good career. The ability to have veterans who have been through tough situations and playoff experience, those things are invaluable because when they come in the building, they know what time it is. They also are trying to maximize their opportunity to be on a successful team. Clearly there is value to both, and whenever you have the opportunity to get guys who can help you, and help their teammates, that’s something that we’re always looking for.”
(What are the challenges that you’re preparing for with the cold and maybe the wind too?) – “All inclement weather, there are obviously factors that we try to make sure that we’re on what we can control. You can’t control what the weather is going to be that day, if it is minus weather or whatever. All we can do is make sure that we know how to maintain what we need to do to be at our best. When I was in New Orleans in 2013, we were a dome team and went to Philadelphia, and I think it was a 20 degree or 10 degree weather day. We went through a plan of how we were going to do it, and how we would handle the weather, but ultimately it comes down to the guys you have and their mindset. Whatever the challenges are going to be, you want to approach it and take it on. I grew up in Wisconsin. I was laughing. I remember when I was in high school and it was -10, and the windchill was miserable, and I remember it not being that cold. And then now when you’re coaching, and it’s -10, you’re like it is cold. Actively moving around sounds fantastic in that weather. (laughter)”
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
RB Raheem Mostert
(On winning the media’s Good Guy Award) – “First off, I appreciate you guys for giving me this. It means a lot just because in my life, I feel like through all the bad and negative things, there’s always positives in trying to do something, even the right thing. Whether it be football, off the field activities, talking to you guys, I feel like it’s important to get not only my story out there but many stories that are shared in the locker room and guys that are in position to share those stories. So I appreciate this, this definitely means a lot. I’m definitely going to cherish this moment with you guys, because like I said, you guys aren’t as bad as I thought. (laughter) I appreciate you. This is pretty cool though. This ‘Good Guy Award,’ I appreciate that. That’s awesome.”
(Does Head Coach Mike McDaniel sort of set a tone for transparency and honesty?) – “He tries everything in his power to make sure that all the guys are doing the necessary things. If you take a look at this year, I mean even last year when we came in, we just tried to do some things like team bonding and all that stuff, guys hosting events and guys actually popping up. I didn’t know how it was prior to the coaching staff or even me arriving, the second stint being here, but I will say that it’s very positive to know that guys are actually supporting each other, and even you guys supporting us too. I think that’s a big part of this thing.”
(So how are you doing?) – “I’m doing good. I’m doing good. Just got through a walkthrough. Feeling good. Still a decision that needs to be made, but the only thing that I can control is my mindset and how I approach this game, and I’m approaching it like it’s going to be my last one like everybody else. It’s a one game season. Just getting ready, getting prepared for that. We’ll see how it shakes out.”
(How difficult has it been for you as a competitor to not be available these past two games?) – “Yeah, it’s been very, very difficult. Just the mental restraint that you have to have in order to help your teammates, help my brothers out there on a different level, from a coaching aspect, it’s definitely a struggle. But all in all, you just live to fight another day. I guess that’s the mantra that you always hear. So for me, the playoffs, that’s where I feel like I thrive the most. It’s something that I try to exploit a lot of the defense and whatever they have going on. That’s something that I take pride in because December ball is different. January, February ball is completely different. I just try to take the approach of, ‘Hey, I’ve got to save myself for the playoffs.’ And that was the mentality that I had these past two weeks. Unfortunately, injuries happen. But all in all, that’s the mindset that I have.”
(I was watching Hard Knocks last night and it focused a lot on what LB Jerome Baker went through coming back from the knee and unfortunately having the wrist injury. It stood out to me because I think sometimes as media or fans, we kind of forget the toll the game takes on your guys’ bodies. Can you speak to that, especially knowing how much this team has dealt with injuries, guys missing games, being back in and back out?) – “This is a long season. It seems like every year there is a game that is added to the schedule. All and all, that’s a part of what we deal with on a consistent basis. There are some guys in this league that can stay healthy, and there are other guys that go through excruciating pain and have to deal with injuries that can linger on for a long time. For Jevon (Holland), he’s done an unbelievable job with his mindset. I was in there a few times with him getting treatment, and all he could talk about was getting back on the field. That’s something that he really harps on. For him to be able to do what he’s done, he’s one of the best safeties in the league, if not the best safety in the league. I definitely was shocked that he did not make the Pro Bowl. I feel like that was the wrong decision in trying to get him there because he’s playing lights out when he’s on the field. He’s doing uncharacteristic things of being a bandage on the defensive side of the ball. You see he’s flying around, he’s doing everything he possibly can to put his body on the line. You see why he was hurting and the pure tenacity he has, and him being a young guy, I really look up to him and his mindset because he’s approaching this game as if this is his last go around. And he’s only in year three. The guy is unbelievable. I have nothing but good things to say. I’m glad he is getting back right, and I’m hoping that he can join me out there on the field, and try to help win for the team and beat the Chiefs.”
(It might be -5 with -15 windchill, and 23 mph winds. How important is it to run the football in conditions like that?) – “You know me, I’m always advocating for running that ball. That’s something that I really believe in. But it’s good weather for running the ball. I’ve played in this type of weather at Purdue. I’m very familiar with it. I’m excited about the opportunity and it’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m assuming there is going to be snow, right?”
(25 percent.) – “Let’s keep it going up so we can get more. I’m excited about the opportunity. I can’t wait. It’s going to be a hostile environment. There are going to be a lot of good fans there. I’ve played in Arrowhead before and the fanbase is unbelievable there. With that being said, we still have to handle business at the end of the day.”
(You mentioned playoff football. Your best game was in the playoffs, four touchdowns to get the 49ers to the Super Bowl. Is there an extra mentality or oomph you have to bring into the postseason?) – “Yeah. For the postseason, I hate to say it, but it’s do or die. It’s a one-game season. If you have that mentality, it can carry you quite a bit a ways in the playoffs. You have to have some things that work out. The scheme has to be right. The play-calling has to be on point. Players have to make plays. Players have to do unconventional things to help with the success of the playoff run. There are a lot of different aspects that go into it, but you do have to have that dawg mentality when you’re going into the playoffs, because that’s the best of the best at that point.”
(How close do you think the locker room is to having that, especially coming off the two losses, and limping in here?) – “We have pure confidence in ourselves, and we believe in ourselves. We just got to go out there and play smashmouth football and do what we got to do. The added pressure converts into even more greatness when you get that win. It’s going to be good going into this game and getting that test. We got handled in Germany, and it wasn’t anything we just shunned away from. We took that full on. Now it’s time for us to go. We’re ready.”
(Is the ankle or the knee a little more challenging today?) – “No. We’re good.”
(Neither one is more of a challenge?) – “Nope, we’re good.”
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio
(With LB Melvin Ingram and LB Emmanuel Ogbah and LB Justin Houston and LB Bruce Irvin all in their 30s, would your hope ideally be to play all of them to conserve their energy on Saturday night?) – “Yeah, I mean we’ll just see how it’s going. Again, it depends upon the flow of the game – how many plays are you playing and how short a time span.”
(What role did you play in making the decision or maybe co-signing their additions?) – “That was Chris (Grier) and his department handling all of that.”
(When he comes over to you and he says, “hey, we’re thinking of signing these guys,” do you say, “I’m all for it” or…?) – “I said ‘good, we’ve got to have somebody.’ (laughter)”
(What was the challenge for you with so much not just new, but you’ve got backups in other roles. What’s the challenge for you in figuring out who can do what?) – “I think the biggest thing is not to try and do too much because the worst way you can play is to beat yourself – not knowing what to do, not being in the right place at the right time. So you’ve got to be careful not to do too much, but we’ve got half our starters out there and they’re yearning for anything to help win the game so you’ve got to balance that.”
(I wanted to ask you about LB Channing Tindall. He does have some edge kind of athleticism, skillsets. Could he potentially help you out there at the edge or is he…?) – “No, I don’t think so. We’re keeping him focused at ILB.”
(What do you think worked well last time in defending Chiefs TE Travis Kelce?) – “I just think it was one of those games where it kind of happened. We did pay him some attention, which helped. Probably kept a couple balls away from him, but it wasn’t like it was every play. Just sometimes games work out that way.”
(We hear a lot of criticism about the Chiefs receiving corps and what they don’t do well, but what are a couple things that do stand out on tape as good?) – “I think (Rashee) Rice has really emerged for them. He’s really a good runner after the catch. He’s shown good hands. (Justin) Watson has really emerged here the last part of the season and really gets down the field. He’s fast with good speed and you can tell Mahomes likes throwing to him. (Marquez) Valdes-Scantling has always been a good receiver. They’re still one of the top offenses in the league and they can explode at any moment with Mahomes at quarterback.”
(How hard is it not to know how many snaps S Jevon Holland and maybe S DeShon Elliott can give you on Saturday as far as preparation?) – “It’s just up in the air. It’s one of those things you can’t control. It’s the injury situation. I know they both want to play and are trying to do everything they can from a treatment standpoint. I think DeShon (Elliott) showed his toughness and want-to by playing in that game the other night.”
(How has S Brandon Jones done in terms of filling in?) – “Good. I think Brandon (Jones) has done a good job. Like I’ve said before, in a weird way, the season has worked out good for him. He’s gotten a lot more playing time than he probably thought he would and it’s come in intermittent pieces, which was good because he had no training camp and offseason. I think he’s done well.”
(Any other team you’ve been around where you’re going into a playoff game with half the starters replaced and you’re bringing – any comparison that you’ve had?) – “No.”
(I know it was a few days ago, but there was a moment against the Bills where I think with 15 seconds left you guys played more prevent coverage instead. I guess what was the thought process behind I guess calling that?) – “Because at that point in the game, at that point in the first half, they were out of timeouts and it just felt like they had to go to the end zone. They got a seven or eight-yard gain I think on the play and tried to score again and came up short and the half ran out so the sequence worked out good for us.”
(Are you familiar with the Taylor Swift hit, “Shake it Off?”) – “No.” (laughter)
(It’s a good song, “Shake it Off.”) – “The highlight of my day is driving home at night and I listen to the 70s on 7. And I don’t think Taylor Swift has any song on there.” (laughter)
(I know you’re always forward thinking about the next game, but has there been a moment where you’ve said I can’t believe how injury-ravaged our unit is?) – “Yeah, I mean it’s a lot all at once. Some of it is at one position in particular, outside linebacker and safety in particular. There’s no woe is me in this business. Everybody looks at this as kind of Madden on PlayStation and they all expect results. Is that what they, used to say in the maternity ward, don’t tell me about the pain, just show me the baby? (laughter) You can’t say that anymore, but everybody is expecting a good performance from us and we’re going to do everything we can to do it.”
(We’ve seen more of DT Christian Wilkins lining up farther from the ball at defensive end. Are you looking to do some of that to supplement the losses on the edge?) – “No. Christian has had a hell of a season inside. We don’t want to weaken ourselves there. He had two great plays the other night. I mean two all-time plays. That’s one thing you have to be careful of. You don’t weaken yourself somewhere to patch a hole somewhere else.”
(How did you, with what you guys went through on Sunday, hold Bills QB Josh Allen to 14 points? What was it?) – “Well we hung in there. We got some takeaways in the red zone. We gave up a lot of yards, but we didn’t give up the points. They are a great offense. They’re going to move the ball on everybody. So you have to come up with some plays and our guys battled and we got some plays. It was under duress. They had a lot of plays. Our guys just played really good overall.”
(Is that kind of the blueprint for Saturday?) – “You hope. We’d like to not let them drive it as long as Buffalo did, but they’re obviously very capable of that with (Patrick) Mahomes at quarterback and the talent they have on offense. I mean, I think if we hold them to 14, that would be good.”
(Do you recall LB Justin Houston or LB Bruce Irvin having an impact on any of the past years’ games that you were involved with?) – “I know Justin. Those two guys have been good players in the league for a long time at different places at different levels. I really don’t because when you’re a defensive coach, you really don’t watch the other team’s defense unless you’re studying them in the offseason and I never really did.”
(This is a housekeeping question. Have you ever had say in what defenders you bring in or do you just leave that to front office?) – “Every place is different.”
(What’s the coldest game you’ve ever been a part of in your years of coaching?) – “Well, we played in Green Bay in 1996 – actually it would’ve been 1997, but the 1996 season (NFC) Championship game. Carolina against the Packers. That wasn’t the record but it was in the top five. Then we played in Green Bay for a playoff game when I was in San Francisco. Really cold. I think there’s one other one. Those are the two that come to mind.”
(I think the first touchdown you gave up Sunday night, the tipped pass, are there any coaching points for that or is that one of those plays where it’s like?) – “Yeah, that’s a little bit of buzzard’s luck. Eli (Apple) could’ve kept competing because once the ball is tipped, there’s no more pass interference. But it happens that fast. They had linemen down field on the play clearly. I mean way down field because it was an RPO. Unfortunately, the officials didn’t catch it.”
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
DT Zach Sieler
(This is what you’ve played for all season. What’s the feeling of it being right here?) – “Super exciting. Obviously last week was disappointing, but we’ve moved on from that. We’ve made the corrections and we’re super excited for this week. And we’re in the playoffs. Who cares? Week by week, let’s go earn it.”
(I know the team addressed some of the injuries at linebacker this week. With injuries, did that affect anything you do this week?) – “I think just the biggest thing of what we’re doing today, tomorrow and Friday is actively trying to build that camaraderie with who’s in there next to me, who’s next to Chirstian (Wilkins), and working to get that. But they’ve been great so far. The guys we’ve brought in have been awesome and it’s been exciting.”
(You probably watched those dudes growing up.) – “(Laughter) Yeah, oh yeah. They’re legends. It’s been cool to play with them and kind of play next to them and work.”
(It’s not every day you get like 150 sacks infused into your meeting room.) – “No. Not overnight. No, not like that. Typically, no”
(How much can veteran savviness help you in these situations, especially guys with no playoff history?) – Yeah, it’s huge. Guys that have played in the league and played in the playoffs and been successful for so long, so having that knowledge and that experience, it’s very important.”
(You’re a cold weather guy. What are the keys to playing in the cold weather?) – “Man, I think obviously being from D-II up there in Michigan, there was no indoors. There was no extra heaters or clothing. We played up at Michigan Tech in the Keweenaw Peninsula way up in the ‘UP’ (upper peninsula) like in Lake Superior. So it’s just doing it. You just go out there and play. I don’t think you let anything get to your head. The only time it gets tough is obviously any time you’re in blizzard conditions, but I don’t know if we’re going to have that or not. Either way, it’s exciting.”
(LB David Long Jr. was talking about it hurts a lot more to get hit than to be the hitter in weather like that.) – “For me, I’ve always felt it hurts after more. You don’t feel it during the game. You just kind of go numb. Then once you warm up, that’s when everything starts to settle in.”
(You going sleeves? Sleeveless?) – “Sleeveless. It’s what I do every game. I don’t want to change it up.”
(What are some of the keys to keep in mind in facing Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes?) – “Obviously he’s a great quarterback, great rusher, scrambler. So just having solid rush lanes and getting back there and just working our rush and coverage together like we have all year.”
(How is LB Andrew Van Ginkel doing?) – “He’s doing good, man. Praying for him every day. Really tough thing that happened there so hope the best for him and his family and a speedy recovery.”
(Double-digit sack season for you. What do you think led to the pass rush working for you this year?) – “It’s everything. What happened is not just me. I mean, Christian’s (Wilkins) at nine. He’s right there. The coverage behind us, Jalen (Ramsey), ‘X’ (Xavien Howard), Jevon (Holland), DeShon (Elliott), all those guys back there, Brandon (Jones). Just doing there thing back there is what allowed us to get to the quarterback. It works fully hand in hand.”
(I saw you at LB Jaelan Phillips fashion event. Are you going to be fashioning off anything Gallery Dept. on the walk in before the game?) – “(Laughter) I think I’ll have something, but I don’t think it will be anything Gallery Dept., no.”
(How nice is it to get another chance at Kansas City, a shot to go to their place?) – “Super exciting. It’s awesome to go up there. My wife’s from Missouri. So just super pumped to go up there and play in the stadium that they all grew up watching and going to. I’m excited.”
(How many ticket requests did you get?) – “A couple, but not many.”
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
LB Bruce Irvin
(Had Miami been in your mind at that point a couple weeks ago?) – “Not at first, but after the situation with the Lions and I got released, my people heard from them but there was nothing concrete. But after the injuries that happened this past Sunday, that’s when they really called.”
(Had you been watching the game Sunday night and saw LB Andrew Van Ginkel get hurt?) – “Yeah, I was watching it. I was definitely watching it and it’s very unfortunate for both of them. But that is part of the game.”
(With you having history with Clint Hurtt’s scheme back in Seattle, how much crossover is it from what you’re learning here?) – “It’s a lot of crossover. When I started going over plays with the coach this morning, it just felt like it was the same playbook, which is going to help a lot being it’s a short week and I just got here probably 24 hours ago. So that carryover is going to help me a lot and hopefully it transitions to Sunday.”
(Do you feel ready to play?) – “Is water wet? (laughter) I was just playing. It’s not like I was at home for a month or two. I was just playing last week so I’m definitely ready to play.”
(Where were you when you got the call?) – “I was at home in the living room about to take my kids to school, actually. Thank God. Being at home with them I think is way tougher than playing football. (laughter) So when they called me, I was with them taking them to school and I was on a flight about five or six hours later.”
(What are your first impressions of Miami, the facility and what you’ve seen so far?) – “It’s Miami. I thought the front lobby looked like the Fontainebleu. (laughter) But it’s a good vibe, great cafeteria food, great people, great equipment people, great trainers. I talked to a couple young guys. I was like, ‘man, I hope y’all know how good y’all got it around here because it’s a good place.’ They’re definitely doing it right and I’m just happy to be a part of it.”
(At first did you know that you were signing up for minus-15 wind chill?) – “I did not know that. (laughter) I knew it’d be cold, but at the end of the day they’ve got to play in the same stuff we’ve got to play in, so at the end of the day it’s football and when the ball gets snapped, hopefully we don’t think about it too much.”
(I should’ve looked this up, but have you been able to sack Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes?) – “I don’t think I’ve sacked Mahomes. I think when we played them – I have sacked him twice actually when I was the Raiders. He’s a good crafty quarterback, knows how to make plays moving around and standing in the pocket, so it’s going to be a tough test for us.”
(At this stage of your career, what do you have to offer the Miami Dolphins? What can you bring to the table?) – “I’m a dawg. That’s what I can say. I’m a dawg. I don’t want to talk about nobody, but the league is different now from when I came in. I had older guys who really showed me the way. So it’s a little different. Social media wasn’t as big as when I came in and all that type of stuff, but I’m a dawg. I’m going to just show you. I feel like I might be 36, but I don’t move like it. So I just can’t wait to show y’all and can’t wait to see how y’all tell me, ‘dang, he was right.’”
(How much do you expect to play or how much…?) – “I don’t know. I don’t know. We’ve just all been rotating in. It’s really a special room to have this many good rushers on the same team at one time, so a lot of knowledge. I’ve been in the league 12 years, but you never can learn too much. ‘J. Houston’ (Justin Houston) is a guy I looked up to and I followed his career. Melvin Ingram, we got drafted the same year so I know a lot about him, so there’s just a lot of knowledge in the room and that’s pretty dope to be around and hopefully we can be together for longer than one week.”
(What do you think about this being now one of the most experienced…) – “The oldest. (laughter) The oldest. I told ‘J. Houston’ (Justin Houston) that yesterday. I said we’re going to have the oldest outside linebacker room in the league, but knowledge. A lot of knowledge, a lot of experience, a lot of sacks. In our room, I think it’s like 243 sacks combined. So if we all know one thing, we know how to get to the quarterback, so hopefully it can translate to Sunday.”
(How have you lasted so long in the league?) – “I told my boy Justin Ellis, because that’s one of my good friends, I said, ‘if I was a younger dude and I heard Bruce Irvin and Justin Houston were coming to the locker room, I would be in their back pocket picking their brain.’ Like ‘how did y’all manage to be in this thing so long?’ First and foremost, God. But just living right, taking care of your body, respecting the game like it’s going to respect you. I always say, ‘young guy, you can get everything out of this game as long as you respect the game.’ And the game has been great to me. I won a Super Bowl, made a lot of money, only been injured twice. So the game has been good to me so at this point in my career, I’m just playing for the love. I ain’t making no money. It ain’t about the money for me. It’s about being able to get sacks. You’ll never be able to replace that feeling, that high, of getting a sack and taking the quarterback down, so I’m just trying to ride it out as long as I can.”
(How did you know you had 243 sacks? Did you guys…?) – “They wrote it on the board this morning. The coach wrote it on the board this morning.”
(Did you have a bunch of overlap with LB Justin Houston at all before today or no?) – “Not really. Like I said, I know ‘Mel’ (Melvin Ingram) personally, but I’ve seen Justin Houston because we’re both from Atlanta so I’d seen him around, but I’ve never been actually in a room with him to really talk to him and pick his brain and stuff like that.”
(What city was home where you flew in from?) – “Atlanta. We all flew from Atlanta, me and him. We were on the same plane so that was interesting.”
(You and LB Justin Houston?) – “Me and Justin, yeah, we were on the same plane. Yep, yep.”
(Hopefully first class.) – “Yeah, it was first class.” (laughter)
(You guys saw each other at the airport waiting for the plane, then and started…?) – “He actually was late to plane. (laughter) He was like one of the last ones to get on and he walked past my seat. But I knew he was coming because I got a little birdy, so like I said, it’s a great experience and we’re both happy to be here with y’all.”
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman
(How much sleep did you lose unfortunately over the return in the Bills game? And when you watched the tape, what stood out at what went wrong?) – “One, it shows you the NFL is a humbling, humbling league. I wouldn’t have slept anyway that night with the short week the league bestowed upon us. But then again, that’s a good thing because it didn’t give you time to dwell. I look at being a coach as being a teacher. So you’re trying to give the players, i.e. the students, all the information to be able to go out and be successful. And if something goes wrong, I first always blame myself of what could I have done differently? What could I have taught differently? We always talk about, did you do what you were supposed to do? How were you supposed to do it? And to the best of your ability? And if you did that, then where’s the downfall? Was it a matchup nightmare? That would be my fault. I got to get you in a better matchup. So I always look at myself first. But like I said, we went into that game after 16 regular season games and gave up the least amount of punt return yards in the National Football League. We punted three other times in that game and didn’t give up another yard, but it doesn’t mean anything because that play went for a touchdown. We believe in what we’re doing. We believe in the players. But that just shows you one play you go from leading the league to you go plummeting. But that’s the National Football League. That’s what makes it so great.”
(Have the coverage teams met your standards this year?) – “My standards are probably disillusioned. You don’t want to give up anything. You look at kickoffs, we’ve given up two long kickoff returns and we’ve kicked off 100 and something times. Two is too many to me. One is too many. The guys are doing a good job and the plays that we haven’t been able to make, there are reasons. There are coaching points. Some of it is individual where we didn’t do something correctly. Some of it was we were late in doing something. But then again, I always look at myself and blame myself first. Why didn’t we trigger fast enough? What were we looking at that didn’t put us in position? So I always look at myself first. Then it’s look at the players. If it’s the same guys making the same mistakes, then we need to do something different with that. But like I said, we’ve kicked off over 100 times and in my opinion, have had two negative plays and one play that I would like to have back just because we could have been really good on it. We went into that game doing a pretty good job covering punts. The longest return was 14 yards, then we give up a touchdown. Again, it cost us. And yeah, I’m going to beat myself up a long time for it.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel said it was probably the first guy who had the best shot at him which was CB Justin Bethel. Did you see it the same way?) – “Yeah. Again, what I’m talking about with a coaching point, we have a certain technique we want to use there and we didn’t get it done. What could I have done better where he would’ve played the right technique on that? Then you get, sadly we had some guys moved positions because of injuries then we lose another guy on that play with an injury. A bad play in a lot of ways. Most importantly because of the injury.”
(If FB Alec Ingold doesn’t get shoved into LB Cameron Goode, eliminating both from the possibility of a tackle, do you think one or both of those guys might’ve had a shot?) – “Well you’d like to think. It was more Goode into Ingold when his knee buckled. So it was a combination. You’d like to think so, but you don’t know. It’s hindsight. They made a good play. The returner made a good cut to get away from the first initial player then we had the misfortune of running into each other. They made a play.”
(Have you and your staff kept the weather forecast for this weekend? How much do you think the wind will be a factor on the kicking game this Saturday?) – “Until you get there and get out on the field and see exactly what it is – I’ve played in a fair number of cold weather games. I’ve played in a fair number of wind games. None of them are the same. How cold is it? What is the wind doing? How is it affecting the ball? There’s a lot of things we won’t know until we get there. We can’t control that. We’ve talked it in here a bunch of times. You can’t simulate the wind. You can’t simulate the cold. It’s going to be what it’s going to be. But yeah, it will have an effect. What effect? We won’t know until we get there.”
(How often I guess do you remember the last time the team made a decision based on picking the end zone off of the wind? Does that happen more often than you think?) – “No. No. I’ve never been a part of a game where the wind took precedence over possession.”
(LB Andrew Van Ginkel had been hurt prior to the punt return.) – “Yeah.”
(Was there any other player who began the game on punt coverage or was that just the one injury that occurred during the game?) – “That was the first one. Then obviously losing Cam and then we had another move. We had a couple moves going on. ‘Bake’ (Jerome Baker) was the next guy to go and then he went. It was one of those games.”
(I’m doing something on the big play. From a special teams standpoint, can you talk to me about the euphoric effect of a big play? How can it affect a game? Change the teams momentum? Change the team’s coaching strategies? All that kind of stuff) – “From my perspective, I don’t let the plays, good or bad, I try not to let them affect me. You have to be onto the next play. But for the sideline, the team, the stadium, whatever, I think yeah, it’s a huge swing. The biggest thing is when you look at the numbers, returns for touchdowns compared to blocked punts, blocked field goals for touchdowns, there’s a big difference in terms of what team wins the game. You’d be surprised, but the blocked punt for a touchdown, blocked field goal for a touchdown, those teams have a much higher percentage of winning than a return for a touchdown, which you wouldn’t think. But it’s crazy. Obviously it’s a huge thing. It’s a game of scores. The team with the most points is the team that wins the game. Anytime you’re able to make a play to score, it’s going to be a great thing. And anytime you give up a play to give up points, you’re making it harder on yourself to win the game.”
(Do you know what those numbers are, just in general?) – “Not off the top of my head. It’s a 20 or 30 percent swing. In terms of kick returns or punt returns for touchdowns, the team that had the return is actually less than a 50 percent chance of winning.”
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(As you know because you’ve been involved with this, some teams when they play on the West Coast or overseas, will go out early to acclimate themselves. Did you guys give any thought to flying out say, tonight, tomorrow, practicing fully Thursday night in those arctic conditions, walkthrough Friday night, instead of how you’re doing it? And why ultimately did you opt to have a normal type travel?) – “It’s a fair question. Really every situation I approach, I know how historically things have gone in the past. I’ve been fortunate to be on so many different teams that I have a lot of different angles to look at things and I think you have to take the exact situation at hand. I think with the Saturday night compounding with some of the best access for rehabilitation and all of those resources, combining all of that with last year, whatever month on the road regular season in Buffalo, that game kind of influenced me a little bit too. That game specifically, there was like 30-40 percent – I can’t remember off the top of my head – but I want to say 30-40 percent of the team that hadn’t ever played under 50 (degrees). It was uncharted territory, so we spent a good amount of time talking through that. I think the individuals that had never played in the cold, their response really put my worries – I can look, I can know how they’re going to respond, or I can extrapolate how they’ll respond to a situation that will be up there in the ranks of the coldest NFL games ever. You can’t really replicate that without being there, so you have to stack your priorities. Obviously we went out to Germany early. Teams make decisions upon what’s best for that team. That doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s going to be the difference. Obviously we were rested and we ended up a touchdown short. Those type of experiences, when you’re playing football in colder weather than you’d hang out in, it can be one of two things. It can be an excuse, or it can be something that galvanizes a team because you’re going through it together. Look, I don’t think you guys would mistake me for a cold weather body. But I’m really excited to go do that with the team because it’s a mindset thing that you do together, that you have to choose for it to be as minimal of an issue as possible. You already know that it’s going to be the coldest game that we’ve had all year and might be one of the coldest in history. You can put those in a bucket with all the other things that we don’t have or we haven’t done. That goes in a bucket, and you can decide whether or not you want to just hang out with that bucket all day or if you just want to go and try to put your best foot forward, come together as a team and chase something special. It will be cold and the air conditioning in that huge (indoor) space gets down to 50 or so. I’m not even going to really – I think that’s kind of insulting to the weather at this point to be like ‘oh, yeah, we’re ready.’ (laughter) The bottom line is you have to have a collective mindset. Everyone has to be all in and I’m confident that our guys will be up for the challenge. Everyone talks about the bad, but it’s going to be a primetime game at Arrowhead. Like, I just got goosebumps right now. And that’s kind of the way we’ll approach it. I’ll probably have goosebumps in a different way on Saturday. It’s erroneous at this point.”
(You brought in three linebackers yesterday. Realistically, how fast can they catch on and be ready to play Saturday?) – “There’s problem-solving left and right in NFL football. That’s a unique challenge. I know everyone has a collective ambition to do something cool. The coaches on the defensive side of the ball, you talk about Vic (Fangio) and Ryan Slowik and Wade Harman, are up for the challenge to try and get these guys up to speed as fast as possible. We’re fortunate that there is overlap in scheme. We’re fortunate that our personnel department is on top of it the way they are and we can have guys join the team that I’m not going to have to really inspire to understand what the moment is. Veteran players in this league know how precious each and every playoff game is. They know exactly what you’re preparing for. It’s football at its finest. You can feel the energy. When the team that loses’ season is over, there’s a different energy in stadiums. And that is as good as it gets. So they’ll be preparing diligently. They’ll know what that kind of looks like. The relationships on the team with players already, those will grow this week and we’ll see if we can do something cool with a little adversity in that realm.”
(LB Justin Houston and LB Bruce Irvin have pretty impressive resumes known as impact pass rushers. Obviously they are very late in their careers. How did the team go about determining how much, if anything, might be left in their tanks?) – “The old eye test. (laughter) You put guys through a workout, see where they’re at. You standardize those workouts over time so you can have a relative appreciation for what guys are doing. You do those in the offseason, you do those for guys coming out of school. You do it really year-round so you have a nice kind of perspective on what the drills should look like and how they’re executing them. So that’s what we’re happy about. It wasn’t like we just threw darts at the old dartboard. You have a list that you’re prepared for. You keep your contacts. Chris (Grier) and his staff do a great job keeping in contact with agents. This is not something that just came out of nowhere. There have been discussions just in terms of where he’s at. We’re trying to keep our ducks in a row in terms of you’re always preparing. That’s what Chris lives by. He’s always preparing for the worst. It was a quick and expeditious turnaround to get that done, and that’s to the credit of the personnel department led by Chris.”
(When you played them in Germany, despite what happened in the first half, you had the ball with a chance to tie late. Same with on Sunday night. Each time you came up close. What do you think QB Tua Tagovailoa needs to do better to finish those situations? Obviously it’s not all on him, but why do you have confidence he’s got what it takes to close it out in those games?) – “Sometimes I have to take a step back. The biggest thing with Tua that you guys have all been witnesses of is development and learning, and so to sit here and say whatever is to happen last week or the week before, is the end game final result, you’re always learning things. That’s one thing he’s proved extremely adept at. On top of that, I think every situation is different. Every game is different. I think you fall into a trap as a player or a coach if you over-categorize in that regard because you take, ‘okay, what individual play, what was your decision, how did we get to that point?’ That was the first time we had that rep really all season where we started the half with the lead and had three plays in the third quarter. That’s a long time to sit in a game that you’re super prepared for. That’s a learning curve, just like luckily I can also go back and rely on, okay, well what happened Dallas or even the start of the season against the Chargers. So every game is different. It’s a constant development. One thing I do know is as much, if not more, than any player I’ve been around, this guy has, in front of our very eyes, learned and continued to grow, and no situation regardless of how much weight is on his shoulders or how much noise is out there, he continues to find a way to improve and I would take those – the last game since it’s the most recent – I would say there were some lessons learned and that’s the point because if it’s going to happen, you better make it worth your while and help propel you in your ultimate direction and goal. I think he’s done a great job since I’ve been around him at learning so I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
(I know you’re preparing for the game this weekend, but the Panthers announced that they requested to interview for Offensive Coordinator Frank Smith for their head-coaching vacancy. Just wanted to get your thoughts on that and just what Frank has meant to you and this team?) – “I can talk about Frank. Should I be frank? (laughter) One of the million cool parts about this profession and what I get an unbelievable opportunity to do is watching people earn things over time. Similar to my story, Frank has been in the National Football League a long time and how I first got connected with him was through stories of his relationships with players. So we really connect at the most foundational element of what our profession is, and that’s developing, maximizing, really serving the NFL football player and their dream, to try to help solidify their goals and help them reach their best selves. He sees a lot of things very, very similarly to myself. He’s instrumental here with just my day-to-day and then also connecting me to the rest of the football staff and the players. He brings it every day. He doesn’t take anything for granted. I’m not surprised and he’s very deserving of the opportunity to interview and it’s not if, but when. Whenever that does come, I know he’s going to do an outstanding job because there’s not any guessing what I see on a day-to-day basis. So I am sure there will be plenty of teams and he’ll do a great job interviewing, and however that works out, I know that he epitomizes for me the NFL, ‘not for long.’”
(A lot of top quarterbacks don’t see many blitzes. QB Tua Tagovailoa is one of those guys who doesn’t get blitzed a whole lot. But the Chiefs blitzed you guys more than anyone else this year. How does Steve Spagnuolo’s defense impact the best quarterbacks when it comes to their blitz?) – “I think you are seeing a guy that’s had control over his own system for an extended period of time, that has never been afraid to be bold. He was blitzing corners when that wasn’t necessarily as in vogue back in the early 2000s. But the system is his own and because of that, within it, it has answers for pretty much everything, which keeps you off-balanced. They do a great job teaching it collectively as a coaching staff. You can tell because of the ownership the players have, the non-verbal communication and how orchestrated people are. There’s a lot of communication. It’s an intricate system that you can see time has helped them to the point that they’re a top five defense in the National Football League and play like it every week. I think really what they do, you’re going to see coverage and you’re going to see blitz. He’s going to try to keep you off-balanced. It’s not like blitzing is necessarily a bad thing to face. There’s a lot of times that I actually prefer that just because if you’re on your P’s and Q’s, there’s less field covered. However, you have to be on your P’s and Q’s. Everyone has to be coordinated. So a lot of times it can be a big play for either team. It just depends on who is executing better. I fully expect them to do what they’ve done throughout the season. On the defensive side of the ball for the Chiefs, I see something similar with the offense they’re facing this week with us, is that they worry about themselves and how they execute their craft and what they are over worrying about whatever problems the opponent presents. A lot of ownership. It’s a very well-coached and cool unit to watch, and it presents a pretty good challenge for us.”
(How concerned are you about the quad injury for WR Tyreek Hill and how concerned are you with S DeShon Elliott’s calf injury?) – “Should I be concerned about Tyreek Hill this week? Probably not. He’s been a captain and really this year, he’s just been the best version of himself and then some. There’s been games, specifically the first time we played the Chiefs, and this past game, where you can tell the opponent has made a major emphasis to create violent collisions with him. And you want to talk about a tough football player that shows his stripes in those moments, that’s a competitor. I had no idea about any quad until there was an injury report, really. He wasn’t even leading on that it was going on. I think that speaks to where he was at and what he was trying to will his team to do. I know he’s going to be very diligent in the training room to maximize this opportunity for sure. Then with DeShon Elliott, he will be really focusing most of his attention in the training room today. He won’t practice but we’re hopeful that he’ll be able to get himself right for game day. That’s what our main objective is.”
Monday, January 8, 2024
OL Austin Jackson
(You’re a West Coast guy, so how do you feel about the weather in Kansas City this weekend?) – “It’ll be my first time seeing weather like that ever. I don’t really care about the weather when it comes to football. The stress of getting my job right will make me not care about the cold. But I think it will be cool to see that though, for sure. I’m actually kind of excited about it.”
(Are the offensive linemen going to be on some like, no sleeves rule?) – “Tough guy. (laughter) No. I doubt it. I doubt it. I probably will have like thermal tights on for sure and some Vaseline.”
(LB Jaelan Phillips was warming up in Buffalo shirtless in that snow game.) – “He’s different though. He’s a beast. He’s just different. Everything he does is different. Like he probably really wasn’t cold. But yeah that’s different. He’s a different mentality.”
(So you won’t? We shouldn’t look for you shirtless while you warm up?) – “I wouldn’t look to do it. If I get heated up, if I get in a good mood – I think we were in Philly and I took my sweats off for warmup because it wasn’t as cold as I thought. I’ll take it when it comes.”
(You guys had some success in the second half against the Chiefs. Obviously they got you a little bit in the first half. What was the improvement made throughout the course of the game and why do you think you think that can carry over into Saturday?) – “I believe it was some adjustments we had made in the run. We had started to make new attacking points, adjustments in the run, and I think that helped us.”
(Last night, one of the things that we heard was in the second half, Buffalo played an eight-man front to stop the run game. How accurate is that and how effective was that in stopping the run game?) – “I mean, a form of eight-man front, sure. It happens. I think that the line did a bad job of picking it up a couple times. We just can’t make those mistakes. We’ve got to control the things we can control.”
(One of the negatives of having to go on the road in the postseason is the crowd noise, dealing with the atmosphere. How difficult is that preparation as an offense to making sure the communication is there to avoid any issues?) – “I think at this point in the season we’re pretty adept at it, just because we’ve gone into a lot of different situations playing away. We kind of have our checklist of the things we need to have done going into the game and I think we’ll be on our Ps and Qs with that.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel talked about last week how Offensive Line Coach Butch Barry had gained the trust of you guys through his investment. I was curious, as a guy who has kind of filtered through offensive line coaches in your short career, from your perspective, what did Butch do to really gain that trust from you early on?) – “Man, Butch probably invested into me – and this is like arguable with my other o-line coach ‘Lem’ (Lemuel Jeanpierre) – but like, between those two guys, they’ve probably invested the most time into me as coaches out of anybody in the NFL. They did a great job just helping me understand and really being available. I have a lot of questions. I have a lot of things I need to understand to play my game. So they did a good job of getting me in the right spot mentally and physically.”
Monday, January 8, 2024
LB David Long Jr.
(What do you remember changing in the second half against Kansas City? Specifically what Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio might have done or what the players did to change the course of that? Kansas City was scoreless the second half that day.) – “Words wise I don’t (remember), but I do remember just the mentality of us going out there. We knew we could play with those guys. We knew we didn’t travel that far to come out with an ‘L.’ It was just more the mentality and the energy. KC traveled well, of course, so it was just us being our own biggest fan in that game and turned it around in the second half.”
(Speaking of a mentality, a game like last night that you have to put aside quickly with a short week, how hard is that to do? Knowing if you won last night, you could’ve won the decision, could’ve been at home. Now you have to travel to KC. What was that process like not even the last 24 hours?) – “I wouldn’t say it’s not hard, especially if you’re emotionally invested in it. But at this point, anything prior to this week doesn’t matter. It’s 0-0. We’re in the tournament. That’s all we needed was the opportunity. I feel like we have the right guys in the room to take advantage of it no matter the weather. Now we’re traveling. We don’t play at home. It’s not coming to Miami. All these things you have to deal with, but I think we have the guys capable of making it happen.”
(What’s it been like on the front dealing with so much turnover? LB Jerome Baker is out, LB Jaelan Phillips out, LB Bradley Chubb is out. Baker comes back in, just a lot of moving parts.) – “I hate it man. But it’s good to see these guys that haven’t been playing all year to get a chance. Cameron (Goode), I’m sick that he had to get hurt yesterday. It was an opportunity for him to come in and step up. ‘Og’ (Emmanuel Ogbah) getting more chances. And then Mel (Melvin Ingram) making the best of his opportunity. He had a sack yesterday. Just to see these guys or this defense as a whole not dwell on losing these great players of course. But just being ready to do what’s best for the team and what we need them to do.”
(You’ve been in cold weather your whole life, right? Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee. What’s different about cold weather? Do you notice anything about a ‘warm weather’ team when they’re in that environment?) – “Just go back to mentality. A lot of people don’t want to get hit or hit in that cold weather. It hurt a little more. That’s what you see. And that’s when you see what types of players you have on your team. How much do you love it? How much do you want to get to that certain point as a team. Like I said, I’ve been playing with these guys all year. Of course, I’m new to the organization, but I’ve been playing with these guys all year. I don’t see a drop-off when it comes to any type of weather. It’s just going to be the same thing going in as it’s been all year.”
(With your mentality, your intensity, do you get fired up for cold weather?) – “Yeah, man. Like you said, I’ve been playing that all my (life). That’s football weather. It’s cold weather. That’s when I like to see who’s going to break. Who’s going to turn down those hits? Who’s going to push through it? That’s when you see what the love for the game is at that point.”
(Does it hurt a little less the aggressor and not the one getting it?) – “That’s a fact. That’s why I play defense.” (laughter)
Monday, January 8, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(With the MRI result for LB Andrew Van Ginkel, do you have a sense if he’s going to miss the Kansas City game?) – “Yeah, I think he’s going to miss it. He’ll be out.”
(And then at the edge position, I know Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio will talk about some things but is playing LB Jerome Baker outside to supplement what you have DE Emmanuel Ogbah and LB Melvin Ingram, is that a consideration?) – “It would have been a consideration but Jerome will be out as well. He injured his wrist and had to have surgery. So both of those guys will be out.”
(LB Jerome Baker has had surgery already?) – “Yeah.”
(So no matter how deep you guys go, he’s done?) – “It appears to be as such.”
(And LB Andrew Van Ginkel, will that require surgery as well?) – “The timetable is kind of up in the air with regard to how they are going to treat it. But yeah, he won’t be back for this postseason.”
(With LB Cameron Goode, did you get unfortunate clarity about his injury?) – “Yeah. It happened on the punt return for a touchdown. He tore his patella.”
(Is there anyone else beyond those three that you lost last night that maybe we’re not aware of yet?) – “I don’t think so. The biggest issue is for those individuals. The team hurts for the individual players just because you invest in your teammate’s story, know where they’re at and the opportunity that they have. I think we’ve learned through the hard way that we have capable players across the board and the team doesn’t use that as an excuse whatsoever. But very heavy hearts for the individuals, for sure.”
(Just doing the math, it seems like there’s a pretty good likelihood that somebody who wasn’t in the building yesterday is going to play on Saturday. Is that a fair assessment?) – “That’s pretty good math. I think that’s where we’re at from a depth perspective. We’re working on that as we speak.”
(What’s that like to deal with? You’re preparing for a playoff game on a short week.) – “I don’t really attach any feeling towards it. At this time of the year, that’s why you stay prepared. That’s why Chris (Grier) and his department work the way they do. So we have conversations about people that we were bringing up today that we were sorting through last week just to stay adept at that. It’s a thing if you make it a thing. I think the main focus is transitioning from a game where guys really laid it on the line and fell short. We fell short of our goal going into the season to win the AFC East. But at the same time, does that matter? No. We’re one of the 14 teams that still have games. So you try to harness all of your emotion, focus and really thought towards coming together for that goal.”
(A couple of players have already mentioned that we’re in the tournament, we’ve got a shot, we’re where we need to be. Is that sort of your message to them, that despite the loss yesterday, we still have an opportunity?) – “Well, yeah. And here’s the thing about NFL playoffs is as much weight as all the things that happen during the season carry, there’s narratives galore that grow out of results. And in the playoffs, it doesn’t matter. It’s a reset. There’s no winners and losers bracket. You’re playing football and the winner gets to continue to play and the loser does not. I think you have to be bold to set goals that you go into knowing it’s not what has been done. You have to be willing to be vulnerable enough to fully commit yourself to something that you aspire to achieve. That’s a goal. That’s not the only goal. It’s so much like life. The bottom line is how do you take whatever hand that you have, and however it is dealt, you try to make the most of it. The team will be fired up to go embrace the challenge. There are many layers to why it’s a challenge. For us in-house, we all believe in each other and we want to go get a losing taste out of our mouth. That’s the only objective. That’s not to say it is easy. But nothing worthwhile is. So you have to transition. We don’t have any time to waste. And we have to put our best foot forward, being one of the 14 teams that gets to continue to play, and we’ll take pride in that and do everything we can so that we can be proud of what we put on the field.”
(You talked about this team wanting to be at a point where they are peaking and they are playing their best ball when it matters most, which is now. Obviously you don’t want to go into the playoffs with a two-game losing streak, but is there any past experience you can kind of lean on to guide a team entering the postseason on a losing streak and with all of these injuries?) – “The idea is that you really immerse yourself into the season and grow, so you have a chance to be your best when it is elimination time. There’s not an exact science. You prefer to go in on a winning streak obviously, but really any team that I’ve been on that has been successful through the playoffs has had what appeared to be a completely detrimental loss down the stretch of the season. But when that happens, I think you get to learn a lot about your team and people either come together or fracture apart, and I don’t see this team fracturing apart at all. I think there is a lot of confidence that they can garner from playing a lot of good football during the season. I don’t think the team is going to expect nor be really giving any concern about the fact whether or not people have so many reasons why we can’t. We’ll focus on why we can. I really believe in the individuals to be strong-minded enough to handle the hurt that has been delivered the last couple of weeks, and press forward to try to do something special together. Really, there’s more things that could distract you from what we need to do together as a team to win a football game on the road in a hostile environment, but I think there are so many more reasons for you to strain and try to achieve it because it will be that much more worthwhile as a team. That’s what we’re focused on.”
(It will be a difference of about 60 to 70 degrees from playing at home to having to play at Arrowhead. Are you busting out the “I wish it were colder” shirts this week or anything else?) – “Really, those shirts are more about it carries on an ultimate premise or adversity is an opportunity. I think in the process of teaching the team how I really view things, I think that might have been more appropriate. I think they know what time it is now. You’re talking about playoff football more often than not. If we’re playing in any playoff game that isn’t at home, it probably will be cold. It will be the same temperature for both teams. For us and for the individuals in the locker room, I know they will not use that as an excuse. The bottom line is we’ll play a game in the same environment as the other team. It doesn’t matter if you played the last couple of games in warm weather. You have to adjust if you want to have a chance to win, so I have no doubt the guys will leave that on the doorstep of the cause of concerns. There are plenty of reasons to be motivated and this team is highly.”
(Regarding WR Tyreek Hill, we know he is having an MVP caliber season. He’s also had some big drops in some of the biggest games. I know he is very prideful and one of the best receivers in the league. Do you talk to him about the drops or just rely on his professionalism to get it right?) – “I think when you are a player of his caliber that our team depends on so much, that can be a little misleading in terms of he gets a ton of targets and when we go to him in high-stake situations, it’s not like he is just gliding in open field. They’re pretty contested. And he’s proven time and time again why we continue to go to him. There are zero people, including myself, that are concerned about a pattern of whatever. He has a high expectation to literally make every play. And in that process, there’s no such thing as a 100 percent shooter.”
(You obviously expressed some optimism for RB Raheem Mostert and WR Jaylen Waddle last night. Do you share that optimism for CB Xavien Howard or is that more dubious?) – “I would say that’s a little more dubious. I’m more optimistic for sure about Raheem and Jaylen. I would never rule anything out with ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) because it means so much to him and he’s doing everything he can. But I would say it would be fair to say we’re not planning for him to be in this game, but if things change, things change.”
(How do you categorize the season that LB Andrew Van Ginkel has had?) – “Very impressive and inspiring for teammates on the other side of the ball, same side of the ball, various positions. This guy seized every opportunity. And that’s the hallmark of what players have to do in this league is you eventually get an opportunity in some way, shape or form. What do you do with it? He found a way to be a versatile contributor before he was a starter. Then every time we called upon him to start, he came through in a big-time way. It’s the beauty of professional sports. When you see those types of things occur, it’s inspiring to coaches and players alike. He really made the most of his opportunities for sure.”
(Where did things evolve with LB Jason Pierre-Paul when he was waived? Could talks be reignited?) – “Yeah, we’ll investigate a ton of different scenarios, which is what you do when you kind of have a run on injuries at a certain position. There’s a lot of guys we’re discussing and we’ll iron that out here in the next quick future.”
(Even if you didn’t have these injuries on defense, there would be a lot of people saying, “Oh, warm weather, fast-paced team going to Arrowhead. They don’t got a chance.” Do you like to have backs against your wall mentality? Is that something you’ve used with your players?) – “I think this particular team, the noise I anticipate will be loud enough and pointed enough that I won’t necessarily have to bring it up. I will say this team, in my opinion, set their expectations and standards for what they wanted to do way before people said they could do it. There’s a lot of people littered on the team that have been outrightly told that they can’t. I don’t see that as surprising as that would be said, nor do I worry about it. I think it’s something that our – the individual players across the board in the locker room – our locker room is littered with people that have found success in the face of people saying they can’t. People say we can’t until we do.”
(Did S Jevon Holland have any setbacks checking back in with him today? Will he be further limited in practice or is he good to go for this week?) – “We’ll try some different (things). The main thing is to try to get him where he can be at his peak performance for the entirety of a game. Our plan is to kind of adjust the way we’ve done the work week and see how that will relate to the game. The idea is he’s able to fully be himself for the entirety of the game, so we’ll probably try a little different formula to try to get a better solution.”
(I just wanted to do a quick follow up on that. Obviously, you guys are dealing with a ton of injuries. There’s some cases where you guys have had people like RB Raheem Mostert and WR Jaylen Waddle who they practice out there, they are limited, and might look like they’re fine but end up not playing. Some people say you might be holding guys out. When you make that decision or come to that decision to not play a guy or make him inactive because of an injury, is it because there’s a risk of reinjury you don’t want to deal with? Is it because they’re structurally not able to go out there? I just wanted to know if you could go into that decision of why guys aren’t maybe active on game day if they practice all week?) – “I understand why that question would come up because we are very particular with how we treat each individual on a case-by-case basis. For example, both Waddle and Raheem had the aspiration to go. In their minds, they were ready to go. However, from our medical staffs’ perspective, it was more likely than not that their vulnerabilities would lead them to either not finish the game or not be available for the next week. When the risk is substantial enough where it’s more likely than not I would say, then it makes the decision easy. But that’s why you have to treat every individual as an individual, completely discuss each and every little nuance to whatever their injury is, apply appropriate – either pushing or pulling back of exertion. You just have to be very communicative and do what’s in the best interest of the organization. We thought the risked outweighed the reward for those two. Those are the types of decisions that aren’t always easy, but you make them collectively with the players involved in the conversations because it’s their career ultimately and we’re just trying to do right by them.”
Monday, January 8, 2024
TE Durham Smythe
(Last night’s second half offensive issues, you would point to what as the culprit as to why a drive couldn’t be sustained?) – “Really just small things here and there. A penalty at the wrong time, an incompletion here or there, and then they kind of went on a run of really good complementary football. That’s kind of what happens in games late in the season in December and January. They are won when teams can put together a good run, a good stretch of complementary football late in the game. That’s what they did with the special teams touchdown, a couple of stops on defense and then another touchdown. That’s kind of the story of the second half there.”
(The numbers have been different as far as when you play quality opponents, the offense’s success, compared to when you play lesser opponents. As you look at that, is it schematically the things you are doing? Is it just the fact you’re playing better teams? What has been the primary issue you think that you haven’t had the offense you want to get to in those games?) – “That’s a good question because when we watch the film the following day after playing these teams, the schemes are the schemes. There is still success being had within the scheme. Like I mentioned a second ago, there is a small thing here, a small thing there, that stalls the drives, which obviously prevents us from getting points. It’s really about cleaning everything up, the small things. It’s not like when we are playing these teams, we’re not scoring as much and they’re just completely overpowering us. I think the scheme is still working. The execution is there for the most part. But then one small thing here, one small thing there adds up, and then that prevents us from scoring like we’re used to.”
(There were no touchdowns for tight ends all regular season. Blocking is such a prerequisite for tight ends in this offense. Does that eat at you at all, no touchdown from your position?) – “No, it doesn’t. I think in general, we have a pretty selfless tight end room in terms of individual statistics. We kind of understand our role within the offense. We produce when our number is called. We do a lot of other things within the offense. But then the red zone is kind of a crapshoot a lot of the time. If you’re running the ball well, the running backs are going to score a lot. If Tyreek (Hill) is being Tyreek, he’s going to score a lot. Things like that. Those are things you can’t really control and I don’t think it really affects anyone in our room.”
(A lot is going to be made about the weather in Kansas City this weekend. There is supposed to be a low of 0. Do you do anything different to make sure you’re ready? And as an offense, which of the elements do you kind of prefer the least to play in?) – “It doesn’t change anything. Maybe an extra layer of clothing. In terms of approach, unless it’s pouring down rain or crazy snow, the temperature is going to be what it is. I don’t think you can really change anything from that standpoint. Those games a lot of the time are a lot of fun. Those are memorable games. Now that it is a playoff game as well. I think the guys are excited about it. If you’re not excited about playing in 0 degree weather in Kansas City, in Arrowhead for a playoff game, then you shouldn’t be doing this. I think the guys are excited about it.”
(There are going to people that think a Miami team, flash, high-scoring offense going to a cold weather game, these guys don’t have a chance. What would you say to people that are skeptical for you?) – “I get the narrative there, but I think you’re kind of overlooking the guys in the locker room. Just because the narrative has been all year that we are the fast, flashy team, I don’t think it means that we are soft or scared of the elements, just because the weather is better down here. The guys in that locker room, obviously we come from all over too. It’s not like we all lived here in Miami our entire lives. We’ve dealt with elements before, and like I just mentioned, it’s a playoff game, and if you can’t get up for that, regardless of the weather, than this isn’t for you.”
(You have career best in receptions and receiving yards this year. What have you thought about your year as a receiver?) – “My approach this year has been the same as it has been the last six years. It’s just try to make the play when your number is called. Obviously the role changes every year depending on the pieces that we have within the total offense. When you have guys like we have on the edges, obviously they’re going to get a lot of volume of the target share, which is absolutely necessary and warranted. But then you have to produce when your number is called. When they do things and lean towards those guys a little bit and there may be some openings in the zones, when your number is called, you make the play. That’s really just how I’ll continue to approach it.”
(Was there a concerted effort to get you the ball more as the season progressed? Or was it just how the games dictated?) – “I think it was more of how the games just flowed, and opportunities depending on what the defense was giving us. In the middle of the season, I was dealing with a good amount of injuries and I was trying to survive to the best of my ability out there in terms of running routes and stuff. It’s been nice to get a little bit healthy towards the end of the year. Like I said, it’s been dictated on what the defense is giving us in terms of receiving opportunities.”
(How does this offense transform if RB Raheem Mostert and WR Jaylen Waddle are able to play?) – “I think those guys obviously bring an extra element to this offense. You can see through the production they’ve had this year. They are two experienced guys who have played a lot of football, so that’s nice as well. If we can get those guys back, obviously two of the most dangerous weapons in the NFL. If you add those to the guys I thought played really well yesterday in their place, I think that will be a strong effort for us.”
Monday, January 8, 2024
DT Christian Wilkins
(What’s step one in trying to put last night aside knowing you have a playoff game Saturday? Short week, all the things that go through it emotionally aside from the physical part.) – “Yeah. I feel like for me and most of the guys, we’ve already put it aside. It’s a short week already, so you have to be quicker than the 24-hour rule. It’s like the 12-hour rule. We have to get prepared for this new season that we’ve got. The regular season is behind us and I’m excited for what’s ahead now. We’ve done what we needed to do to earn playoff football, bonus football. So now we’re just looking at what’s ahead. That’s the mindset we’re taking. That’s the mindset I’m taking. That’s how we’re looking at it, and that’s how we’re approaching it.”
(You had some defensive end reps throughout the course of you career. You had a couple last night. Do you think more is to come with the injury situation you guys have had?) – “I don’t know. But if I’m ever asked to do anything, I’m a team guy. So whatever is asked of me, I will happily do.”
(When you’re out there, what’s your approach? What’s different from your perspective when you take on a tackle instead of a guard?) – “Well, luckily for us, we work on a lot of different techniques and doing different things. You get a lot of reps throughout the course of a season. So you do have a lot of bank reps. In a lot of ways, three technique is like playing five technique. It’s just a little more space, a little different.”
(I don’t know if you’ve looked at the weather forecast in Kansas City this weekend, but they said it might be a low of zero degrees. As a guy who’s big on routine, has that changed anything for you in terms of making sure you’re ready for the weather and staying warm?) – “No. Pretty much my approach is the same no matter what. That’s why I structure my routine that way so I’m good to go regardless. But that’ll be fun. I don’t think I’ve ever played in anything that cold or that type of weather. It’ll be exciting. That’s football weather and it’s playoff time, so let’s go.”
(No sleeves though?) – “No sleeves.”
(You’re from the Northeast, so you’ve seen some cold temperatures. But not that cold?) – “I don’t think quite that cold. But I’ve been a part of some cold games and cold weather. That’ll be a little different, but it’ll be exciting.”
(A minute ago, you used the word ‘we’ve done what we needed to do to earn a playoff berth’. Obviously you could’ve earned a lot more than what you did, including a home game. How much is there a sense of what could have been? Or meat left on the bone? Or whatever phrase you want to use?) – “I mean, that’s one way to look at it. But regardless, wherever you end up or how it ends, you’re in the tournament. Everyone has a chance. Regardless of where you’re playing on the road, a lot of teams you end up having to face, you’d end up facing regardless if you’re trying to do something big. You’re going to play good teams down the road. You’re going to have to play all the teams. I’m not really looking at it like that. It is what it is. We got what we earned and now we’re looking ahead.”
(You have your hand wrapped. Did you come out of the game ok?) – “Yep.”
(What happened?) – “I’m fine.”
(You guys I think were able to hold the Chiefs scoreless in the second half the last time you faced them. What do you remember about what you guys were able to do in that second half that you can potentially take to this game?) – “Yeah, I just remember we were able to make adjustments after seeing how they were attacking us early. Make some adjustments, which is pretty standard throughout the course of a game. But they are a very good football team. They have a very good offense, so we’ll have to bring it. We’ll have to play some good defense to put ourselves in a good position to try and win this thing. But they’re a very good team and looking forward to the challenge.”
(What was the back and forth like with Bills QB Josh Allen? You got him for that strip sack. I know he had his moments. How does that prepare a team for what’s ahead in the playoffs?) – “Yeah, just that. They are a good team. We’ll see more good teams down the road starting with this weekend. Obviously, different things schematically, different players and stuff like that. But just really preparing for big time football against big time opponents.”
(Were you looking for the ball the whole time or was it a look what I found?) – “Nah, come on I’m smooth with it. (laughter) It just happened the way it did. It was all part of how it was scripted. (laughter)”
(You guys have been in this roll of facing these elite quarterbacks in QB Dak Prescott, QB Lamar Jackson, QB Josh Allen and now QB Patrick Mahomes. What is the preparation like for each differently and when you’re going to face a guy like Patrick Mahomes in a setting like this?) – “Yeah, each guy does a little something different, so there might be little things here or there. There might be little things schematically or game plan wise. I don’t really know exactly what those will be. I mean, you just prepare as best as you can and accomplish the gameplan as best as you can and play as hard as you can and look up at the end.”
(Two habits that I wanted to ask you about yourself. The national anthem, you run out at ‘Land of the free, home of the brave’ right? You run out – where does that come from and why do you do it?) – “Why are you watching me so much? (laughter) That’s the bigger question. Don’t watch me. (laughter) But again, I’m a routine guy. That’s just what I do. I actually love the national anthem. It’s a time to lock in. That’s my favorite part of getting ready for the game because that’s when all the emotions and energy is at it’s peak. It’s a good time and I’m just ready to go there. But yeah, that’s just always what I’ve done. It’s my thing. Now what’s your second question?”
(I told you about this one day in the locker room, so where does that come from?) – “Oh, yeah, so again stop watching me. (laughter) Let me do my thing. Let me just do my weird little corks and things that I got. I’m a routine guy. It just is what it is. I got my little things. I got my little reasons. I’m not going to share them per se, but once I do something or get in a little groove or routine, it just is what it is.”
(I always notice people’s little routines.) – “Watch somebody else next time.” (laughter)
(Nine sacks. You finished the regular season with a strip sack in a big game at the end of the year. Have you done everything you think was asked of you in a contract situation?) – “I mean, again, I haven’t thought about that at all. I just try to play as hard as I can for my guys, for my teammates and for those organization. I love this organization so much and people around, my teammates and all that. I just think about being who I’ve been since day one coming in here and that doesn’t change. I always approach the game the same way. It doesn’t really matter. I’m focused on what’s coming up this week and doing it again in this brand-new season that we have being in the postseason.”
(With that in mind, you guys are human. Obviously you’re not going to make excuses, but you look around, guys are dropping like flies. A lot of key players on this team have gone down. Do you at any moment in this stretch and say, ‘Man, what is going on? We just can’t catch a break.’) – “No, not really because every team has their things they’re dealing with. Luckily for us, we have a lot of guys for us that have been around for a long time with the team and been preparing the right way. We do have a lot of luxuries as tough as some of the injuries have been. We have guys who can step up and play good ball. Like I said, they’ve been in the meeting rooms and preparing and learning the same stuff. You don’t really think about that. You can bring attention to it if you want, but I’m not going to make an excuse for anything. Whoever is up, whoever’s number is being called, they have to perform to the best of their abilities.”
